Rodeo Horsepower: Jade Corkill's Rosie

Jade Corkill won a yearling colt at the 2011 San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo that's turned into his go-to jackpot ride.

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When Jade Corkill won the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo in 2011 with Chad Masters, the pair added $15,038 to their PRCA world standings totals. But that’s not all—the Cuatro Light Ranch in Uvalde, Texas, awards each San Antone event winner a yearling out of the ranch’s Driftwood-bred herd. Today, “Rosie,” the 2010 bay filly Corkill picked out of George and Delia Light’s remuda, is ready to be the three-time world champ’s next big thing.

“I wanted a yearling because I’d never done one start to finish,” Corkill said. “Chad Masters went down there and they gate cut them, and he picked out the two prettiest ones.”

Masters eventually sold his colt, but Corkill kept the mare, registered as Mesquitewood 80510, at first for sentimental reasons.

“She’s almost human-like,” Corkill said. “She’s super gentle, she chews on lead ropes, but she was the most trainable horse it turned out. When she was 4 years old, my son Colby (then 3) could rope the dummy on her. I head and heel on her, you could do whatever you wanted on her.”

Corkill had helped horses, like his great Ice Cube, come into their own, but he’d never brought a colt along from the start. He had a theory, though, that he wanted to test in Rosie’s training.

“I went really, really slow,” Corkill explained. “I wanted to see if I could go slow enough so she knew exactly where to go before I ever went any faster. I wanted to make her do what I wanted her to do no matter what. I leadsteered, roped the Smarty, did slow steers, all that. I always went at a speed that there was no possible way there was a chance she’d mess up. Now she feels like she knows where she’s supposed to get to. It doesn’t matter what happens in between. She’s plenty fast, but she’s not a Switchblade or a Caveman. But she’s really smart and has good cow sense. She knows the shortest distance so she gets there on time. She doesn’t make unnecessary moves. That’s another reason I ride her. Even when she was green, I could still ride her. If she messed up or didn’t do the right thing, she might be late making a move so I could feel it coming, adjust for it and still catch. She never didn’t try to do it right. Sometimes she just hadn’t seen a scenario yet, but she could adjust.”

Corkill won second with Rosie in her first jackpot—the first time she’d ever run a steer at full speed.

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“She’s never been nervous or felt green,” Corkill said. “I don’t know if she’s just comfortable with me on her or what. She’s been like an old horse the whole time I’ve had her. She’s never acted like a colt. She wants to do well.”

Rosie made her first ProRodeo appearance in 2015, winning Cleburne, Texas’ Johnson County Sheriff’s Posse Rodeo with a 5-second run worth $1,919 a man. She stayed home most of that year, though, to spend some time growing up. Corkill didn’t want to rush her or wear her out on the road. In 2016, Rosie helped Corkill win Chris Cox’s Open as well as the Open at the Wrangler Finals. This year, she’ll start pitching relief for two-time AQHA/PRCA Heel Horse of the Year Caveman.

“She had to get that rodeo know-how,” Corkill said. “But now, she’s right on the money. She’s like cutting through butter.” SWR